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Episode 1448: The 21-Soto Salute
Date October 25, 2019 Summary Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss the latest on the Astros and the benefits and limitations of front-office diversity, Rob Manfred’s new comments about the baseball, Kris Bryant’s grievance against the Cubs, umpire Rob Drake’s apology for a bad tweet, and Yu Darvish’s good tweets, then answer listener emails about Juan Soto’s age and clubhouse drinking, the Nationals’ clubhouse chemistry, whether teams should stagger their starters to avoid opponents’ aces, whether stealing third is easier than stealing second, whether baseball should have a playoff losers bracket, and whether pitchers can use the variation between baseballs to their advantage. Topics * Importance of Washington Nationals' clubhouse chemistry * Staggering starters in the playoffs * Would you watch a playoff losers bracket? * Ease of stealing third base * Training pitchers to recognize different baseballs * Continued coverage of the Astros' clubhouse incident Intro Thrush Hermit, "This Week" Outro Modern Baseball, "Play Ball!" Banter * Ben and Meg are amazed at how much has happened in the baseball world within the last week. * Meg is writing about the situation with the Astros and expresses how frustrated she is that this happened while in the course of female reporters just trying to do their jobs. * Meg elaborates on the Astros' poor attempts to apologize and the need for front offices to be proactive, not reactive, on issues of front office diversity * Umpire Rob Drake's tweet and subsequent apology * MLB's ongoing investigation into the baseball and Rob Manfred's comments about the postseason ball * Juan Soto and clubhouse celebrations with underage players * Kris Bryant's grievance for not being called up at the start of 2015 was just heard by an arbitrator. * Service time manipulation * Yu Darvish's tweet trolling Justin Verlander for his misplay of a ground ball Email Questions * Jimmy: "I had a discussion today with a friend about players who aren't yet 21 and what happens during series win celebrations, currently relevant with Juan Soto. I haven't tripped over any footage or articles that explain what might happen here. I could imagine the other players would want to particularly mob him because he is not 21, but the team may not want proof that they are providing alcohol to a minor. Any thoughts?" * Theo (Washington, DC): "What you are missing about the Nationals: The Nationals are different this year because of that which we don’t know how to quantity. They have a mix of personalities, particularly the Latin American players that let them play loose and carefree. I know this is easy to dismiss, but it is the real deal. This is the secret sauce (or the sauce too complicated to quantify)." * Sam: “I’m curious about the strategy behind pitching matchups. Why do teams match their aces (Scherzer v. Cole) instead of starting their best pitcher against one of their opponent’s weaker starters? Scherzer’s Nationals chances of winning are low against Cole’s Astros in game 1, but if they pitched Scherzer against Corbin in game 3 they would have better odds in that game. Can teams ever do better over a 7 game series by offsetting these matchups?” * Martin: "If there was a third place series with the CS losers, would you watch?" * Zach: "During the broadcast of game 2 last night Smoltz said that stealing 3rd is the easiest base to steal in baseball when Altuve attempted it in the early part of the game. Is this true? Just caught me off guard since it's closer to home plate than second is." * Landon: "Given the extraordinary ball-to-ball variance in performance described by Rob Arthur, do you think teams are attempting to train their pitchers to identify the juiced vs dejuiced balls? Seems like that could be a real advantage, right, to the extent discernible with the naked eye? That what Gerrit Cole is up to?" Notes * Juan Soto has been drinking sparkling white grape juice during the Nationals' playoff celebrations. * There have been several attempts to quantify the impact of staggering starters in a seven game series and there has not been any demonstrated significant impact. * In 2019 baserunners attempting to steal third were successful 79% of the time. They were successful just 73% of the time when attempting to steal second. * The Reds are moving their press box to the third base line and converting the current press box into suites. Ben expects this is a move that will continue among other teams. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 1448: The 21-Soto Salute * Rob Manfred's comments about the baseball * Kris Bryant's grievance that could change the entire landscape of the Cubs franchise and MLB by Tony Andracki * Major League Baseball investigating umpire Rob Drake's tweet calling for civil war if Trump is impeached by Jesse Yomtov * Rob Drake's apology * Sharks are chomping at Nats Park, and I think we're going to need a bigger bandwagon by Thomas Boswell * Are the Nats winning because they're dancing or dancing because they're winning? Yep. by Barry Svrluga * 'Chemistry' felt in Astros' locker room before home opener by David Barron * The Trouble with Forecasting Chemistry by Ben Lindbergh * In the Wake of Countless Controversies, What Reason Is There to Trust MLB? by Emma Span * Juan Soto's clubhouse celebration * Bryce Harper celebrated NL East title by pouring apple cider on a kid and beer on his teammates by Kevin Kaduk * The Baseball Isn't Rejuiced. It's Just Inconsistent by Robert Arthur * Yu Darvish perfectly trolls Justin Verlander over bungled throw to first by Nick Schwartz * Should the Nationals Duck Gerrit Cole? by Ben Clemens * On rotation order and win probabilities by Dan Lependorf * Staggered Rotations and Postseason Win Probability by Dan Meyer * Postseason Rotations and Matching Up Aces by Roger Cheng Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes